In 1962 in the full flush of (pre-Gulf of Tonkin) expansiveness, the United States congress voted nearly $2½m to bring six channels of educational television to the atolls and islets that make up American Samoa. Those were hopeful times. Congressmen—and most other Americans—believed in educable Asians, in the great television learning curve, and social engineering on a big scale. Thus a 5,000-foot aerial tramway was strung across Pago Pago Bay to ship a television antenna to the Samoan peaks; classrooms built and sets installed; thousands of hours of programming produced.